


peppermint and spider webs

by lifedontjustexist



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Parkner Secret Santa 2019, Peter and Harley have a dog, Sprinkles of angst because I have no self control, because I said so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:35:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21958210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lifedontjustexist/pseuds/lifedontjustexist
Summary: Harley isn't having a good week, but as it turns out, he was overthinking things. As he always does.For the Parkner Secret Santa
Relationships: Harley Keener/Peter Parker, Michelle Jones & Harley Keener
Kudos: 117
Collections: Marvel(ous)Universe





	peppermint and spider webs

**Author's Note:**

> My gift for @slytherinboy1307 on Tumblr! I hope you enjoy it!

Harley Keener was having a very shitty week. 

Like, he’d had shitty weeks before. Even shitty months and shitty years. His dad left when he was six. He grew up in the closet in a very small mostly Christian town in _Tennessee_. When he was twelve, he was attacked and held at gunpoint. It wasn’t like his life was a beacon of luck.

But damn, he was just having a _really_ bad time.

It went something like this:

On Sunday, Abbie canceled their plans to rewatch the Star Wars films on the following weekend. Apparently she’d forgotten that she already had plans with her best friend, Lila Barton. 

(Which was a friendship that Harley was still bitter about, not because he disapproved or anything, but because Abbie told _Peter_ about her crush on Lila before telling Harley. And he’d already seen it coming. Peter! Of all people!)

On Monday, he had to take Cosmo to the vet so he could get neutered, and the bratty little dog gave him the cold shoulder when Harley and Peter went to pick him up. He ran and jumped right into Peter’s arms, which almost tore his stitches before they even left the building. 

On Tuesday, he had a test in AP U.S. Government. Which was Harley’s worst class. He took one look at the first question and knew it was pointless. That little observation resulted in him filling out the bubbles on his answer sheet to correspond with the letters of random guitar chords. He ended up getting a D on the test. Not his best moment.

On Wednesday, his average time for answering questions in academic decathlon practice lowered _significantly_. Flash had a perfect streak of correct answers (which reminded Harley that even though Flash often got his answers wrong due to being determined to answer first, he was still a student at Midtown, and he was insanely smart). Harley had to deal with MJ shaking her head at him sadly all throughout practice, and he would’ve been a smartass with her if not for the fact that she was sitting right next to Peter.

On Thursday, he was walking with Abbie to go pick up some more dog treats for Cosmo when Spiderman swung by, chasing after a thief or some shit like that. Peter waved happily to Abbie. He ignored Harley.

(And, okay, maybe that was _fair_ , but Harley wasn’t about to admit that.)

All of this accumulated to today. Friday. Something came up that prevented Happy from picking Harley up at school. Harley usually wouldn’t mind too much, except that it was raining outside.

 _Rain_. In _December_. In _New York._

It wasn’t like Rose Hill had much snow, but Harley would’ve liked a little bit of snow around the holidays. 

Harley sat on a bench near the entrance of the school. Only a few kids still milled about, most of them in clubs that met after school.

One of those kids approached him. Harley barely noticed MJ as she sat next to him. He felt her eyes bore into him until he finally looked at her.

“What?” he asked, exasperated.

MJ narrowed her eyes, as if with one word, he’d just confirmed whatever she was looking for. “Rough day?”

Harley scoffed. “Rough _week_. I just wanna get home.”

“Isn’t Peter staying at the Tower this weekend?”

Harley’s eyes widened and he sat up straight, turning and angling his entire body to look at MJ. “Seriously?”

She looked entirely bored as she responded, “Isn’t that the result of your little ‘custody battle’ over Cosmo?”

Fuck. She was right. Harley slumped back into the bench. “It’s not like we _broke up_ or anything.”

“Then what’s up with you and Peter?”

Harley bit back a bitter laugh. “Don’t think you’re gonna weasel anything out of me!”

MJ waved his comment off. “Eh, I already weaseled everything out of Ned.”

He bit back a curse. “Of _course_ Peter told Ned—”

“He didn’t, actually. Tony did.”

“Tony and Ned talk?”

“Actually _Pepper_ and Ned talk. Tony just happened to be around when Pepper was talking to Ned about a possible internship.”

Huh. Harley sure has been out of the loop with everything going on.

MJ must’ve been feeling sorry for him, so she awkwardly patted his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. It kind of worked, but he wouldn’t ever admit that to her. “Ned doesn’t actually know. Neither do I. We’ve both been bugging Peter about it, but for _once_ he’s doing a good job at keeping a secret.”

Harley stifled a laugh. “Why haven’t you guys been bugging _me_ for answers?”

“We thought Peter would budge by now. Apparently, we miscalculated.” MJ stood. “Come on, loser,” she said. “I’m sure May will let you stop by. She might even give you a ride.”

Harley squirmed a bit. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to take up the offer to go with MJ to May and Peter’s apartment, or if he wanted to take his chances walking all the way to Manhattan in the rain.

Clearly, MJ knew exactly what he was thinking. “Peter’s on patrol. Don’t be an idiot, let’s go.”

It was probably easier to just go with MJ instead of protesting. Harley huffed, but stood and followed MJ out of the building.

* * *

May hadn’t bothered even trying to make dinner. She’d just gotten take-out on her was home from work.

The second she opened the door to see Harley and MJ, shivering and cold, she ushered them inside with a stern expression. “ _Neither_ of you guys had an umbrella? I swear, you’re worse than Peter—”

She cut herself off and grimaced in Harley’s direction.

Harley took a few deep breaths while MJ and May started talking. “Are you sure you wouldn’t mind giving me a ride?”

“It’s nothing,” May insisted

“...Driving from Queens to Manhattan isn’t really ‘nothing’,” Harley pointed out. 

“Then I’ll make Tony pay me back for gas,” May smiled, “I’ll go grab some blankets, you two need to get warmed up.”

The blanket she ended up handing him was Peter’s. Go figure.

“By the way,” May said as she wrapped a blanket around MJ’s shoulders, “Ned’s here. He’s doing his ‘guy in the chair’ thing.”

“Nice,” MJ walked straight over to Peter’s room and opened the door. Sure enough, Ned was in there, sitting at Peter’s desk. Harley almost followed, but decided last minute to sit in the living room.

He tried to take a nap, but that didn’t work when he was wrapped in Peter’s blanket. He texted Tony to ask if Happy would be able to pick him after all, and only received an ‘eye roll’ emoji in return. He did all of his homework (except for AP U.S. Gov) and even had time to catch an error written into the work.

It didn’t make him any less anxious.

After a couple of hours, MJ and Ned went to sit in the living room with Harley. They were talking about class when Ned said, “Yeah, I was hoping I could work on the project with Peter—” he paused, “um…”

Harley grit his teeth. “It’s fine.”

MJ looked between Harley and Ned. “So who’d you get instead of...him?”

Harley’s patience snapped. “Guys! Stop acting like something catastrophic happened! Peter and I just had a stupid fight, it’s not like we broke up and you guys have to act like I’m going to break down at the mention of his name!”

Ned quickly held his hands up in defense. “Hey, dude, I’m just—”

“I’m fine!” Harley screeched.

From over in the kitchen, May whistled. “Well, you guys sure know how to make an evening awkward.”

Harley crossed his arms and turned away from his friends.

Unfortunately, that meant he had a clear view of May as her eyebrows furrowed and she asked to the room, “Why’d you guys come out of Peter’s room? I thought you were helping with patrol?”

Behind him, Ned chuckled nervously. “Well there wasn’t much left to do—”

The four of them jumped when they heard a large _crash_ come from Peter’s room. There were more sounds of things being ruffled around, and Peter’s muffled voice as he called out, “I’m okay!”

The door opened, and Peter stumbled in, still pulling a sweater down his torso. He looked, wide-eyed, at where Harley sat on the couch. “...Oh.”

In the tense silence, May clapped her hands. “Let’s all get in the car, shall we? Ned, MJ, I’ll give you a ride home. Peter, Harley, Cosmo’s gonna be waiting for you.”

* * *

The car ride was so uncomfortable that Harley was honestly debating whether to fling himself out of the car. Unfortunately, Tony probably wouldn’t like that.

Even once they got to their floor at the Tower, Harley’s weird mood didn’t get any less depressing when Cosmo ran right up to Peter.

“Hey!” Peter was already on the floor, letting Cosmo lick all over his face. “Woah! Don’t jump! You’re gonna bust your stitches!”

Cosmo was a small dog, technically a mutt, but he could pass for a mini poodle. He was small, about fifteen pounds, and very, very lovable. Peter and Harley found him in an alley while they were walking around, hand in hand, and they basically begged Tony to let them keep the dog.

Harley didn’t realize that Peter was staring at him until Peter spoke. “He doesn’t resent you for the whole neutering thing, ya know?”

Harley glared half-heartedly. “He hates me.”

“He doesn’t!”

Ignoring him, Harley walked past where Peter sat on the floor with Cosmo. Only a few feet past, Harley’s right leg pushed forward suddenly, and buckled under him. Harley stumbled. “What the—?” He looked behind him and saw Cosmo staring at him, panting, tail wagging. The little brat had barreled right into the back of Harley’s knee.

Harley couldn’t help but grin. He laughed as he crouched down so that Cosmo could playfully greet him without jumping.

“I _told_ you he wasn’t mad at you,” Peter teased.

Harley sat down, leaning back on his hands. He and Peter were still a few feet away from each other. Harley wished they were closer. “I’m sorry,” he sighed, rubbing his face with one of his hands.

“I mean,” Peter started, “obviously Cosmo wasn’t gonna resent you forever—”

“Not about that,” Harley groaned. “I mean our _fight_. It was so fucking stupid. I totally get why you’re angry about me changing our plans for New Years.”

There was a long pause, and when Harley met Peter’s eyes, Peter was looking at him with the same expression that he looked at Flash with when Flash got overconfident during practice. “...You thought I was mad at you?”

“Yeah…?” Harley froze. “You weren’t?”

“No!” Peter said, all too quickly and surprised to be a lie. “Babe, I thought _you_ were mad at _me_!”

Harley sat up straight at Peter’s words. “Why would I be mad at you?”

Peter ran one hand through his hair like he was about to tear it out. “Because I got super weird about you giving your dad another chance! I thought you were furious with me!”

“God no! I just agreed to it for Abbie! I thought…” Harley found himself trailing off. He laughed, “We suck at the whole ‘communication’ thing, don’t we?”

Peter really looked like he was trying to stop himself from laughing. “Yes, yes we do.” In a swift motion, he held his arm out, flicked his wrist, and webs suddenly attached themselves to the front of Harley’s shirt. Peter pulled them together, far more easily than he had any right to, and pulled Harley into a kiss.

( _That_ , Harley thought, Peter had more than enough right to do.)

Peter’s lips were warm, a bit chapped, and he tasted a bit like a candy cane. Harley pulled back briefly, a bit embarrassed about how flushed he felt, and asked, “Why do you taste like peppermint? You _hate_ peppermint.”

Luckily, Peter blushed as much as Harley. “A girl on patrol offered me a candy cane and I couldn’t just tell her ‘no’. I felt bad so I ate it.”

Harley released a breathy laugh as he pressed his forehead to Peter’s. “You’re too nice,” he teased. 

“You’re not nice enough,” Peter countered.

“Well aren’t you quick as a whip?” Harley traced the curve of Peter’s neck and began to pull them back into a kiss when _Peter_ pulled back. “What now?” Harley whined.

Peter looked like he was contemplating something. “Forget peppermint, Cosmo was just licking both of our faces.”

Cosmo was staring at both of them. He sat next to Harley, wagging his tail. He tilted his head in question when Harley looked at him. A gross thought, but Harley shrugged. “Well, the damage has already been done.”

Peter rolled his eyes and kissed Harley’s forehead. “Come on. Let’s steal Mr. Stark’s face-wash while we can.”

Harley picked Cosmo up, cradling the dog in his arms. “Carry me,” he demanded. Peter tried to look stern, but failed. The fondness in his eyes was not lost on Harley.

“You’re _both_ brats,” Peter sighed as he stood and picked Harley up bridal-style. “You’re lucky I love you.”

“Damn right you are. I’m a miracle.”

“That’s _one_ word for it.”

“Rude!” Even if they wouldn’t spend New Years together, they still had Christmas to look forward to. Harley couldn’t help but worry a bit about what would happen in regards to his family. Worrying was something he did easily. 

But then Peter kissed Harley’s cheek, and he decided that he would worry about everything later.

**Author's Note:**

> Cosmo is 100% based off my own dog, and I'm most likely gonna write him into my other Parker fic. Somehow. I have no idea, but somehow.
> 
> Happy Holidays, everyone~!!


End file.
